The State government on Monday cleared a ₹34,293.69-crore action plan for various programmes of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub-Allocation and Tribal-Sub Allocation (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act for 2023-24.
The approval was given at a meeting of the SC/ST State Development Council chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. At the meeting, the Chief Minister directed officials to ensure that funds earmarked under the SCSP-TSP should be used only for the welfare of SCs and STs. He warned them that if they fail to do so, stringent action will be initiated against them as per rules.
Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister directed officials of various departments to submit impact assessment reports after implementing projects under the SCSP-TSP in their departments. “Periodic reports on the change in the status of the beneficiaries following the implementation of the projects should also be submitted to the government,” he said.
Increase in grants
Briefing presspersons after the meeting, Social Welfare Minister H.S. Mahadevappa said of the ₹3.28 lakh crore State Budget, ₹1.42 lakh crore has been allocated for development works. “Of this, 24.1% grant (a per rules) i.e. ₹34,221.49 crore has been set aside under SCSP-TSP. This, along with ₹72.20 crore that were not utilised the previous year, takes the total SCSP-TSP grants to ₹34,293.69 crore. Overall, the grants under SCSP-TSP have increased by ₹4,030 crore this year. In the meeting, a detailed draft action plan of programmes in all departments was discussed and approved,” he said.
Under this year’s SCSP-TSP grants, while ₹5,790.67 crore has been set aside for Women and Child Development Department, ₹5,400.98 crore has been allocated for Energy Department, ₹4,041.78 crore for Revenue Department, ₹3,787.29 crore for Scheduled Caste Welfare, ₹2,779.97 crore for Food and Civil Supplies Department, ₹2,349.85 crore for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, ₹1,431.5 crore to Housing Department, ₹1,387.35 crore for Scheduled Tribes Welfare, ₹1,296.96 crore to the School Education and Literacy Department, and ₹1,122.25 crore to the Health Department, according to the Minister.
₹11,000 crore for SC/ST beneficiaries under guarantees
Over ₹11,000 crore from SCSP-TSP grants will be spent on the expenses incurred on SC/ST beneficiaries under the government’s five guarantee schemes, said Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa.
He said the number of SC/ST beneficiaries under the guarantee schemes will be marked out for this. “We have asked all departments to give details on how many SC/ST people will benefit under the guarantees,” the Minister said.
The BJP had accused the Congress government of “diverting” the SC/ST sub-plan money to implement the five guarantees. Denying the allegation as baseless, the Minister said the grants meant for them will be utilised on the beneficiaries of the communities under the guarantee schemes. “We have allocated ₹7,700 crore under SCSP and ₹3,430 crore under TSP for the five guarantees,” Mr. Mahadevappa said.
Citing the example of the Shakti scheme that offers free bus travel for women, he said: “We do not know how many SC/ST beneficiaries will take buses. If one beneficiary travels 30 times, we will have to give more money,” he said.
